Method and system for providing online promotions through a social network-based platform

ABSTRACT

Systems and methods for providing online promotions integrated with social network-based platforms are disclosed. Promotion details such as rules, offered prizes, incentives and descriptions, survey questions, display banners, terms and conditions, privacy policy, and social networks to integrate the promotion with, are provided by the sponsoring organization to a server. The server generates a custom promotion application and/or widget for integrating with the organization&#39;s social network webpage and/or webpages external to social networks. A participant enters the promotion through these webpages or other links and lists friends in the social network to receive an invitation to enter the promotion. Viral features such as friend invite features, newsfeeds, minifeeds, other features that display online activities of users and people in the users&#39; social network, notifications, requests, and other social network-based platform features to deliver messages to members of the one or more social network-based platforms further spread the word about the organization&#39;s promotion.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application claims the benefit of the following applications, eachof which is incorporated by reference, U.S. Provisional Application No.61/033,119, entitled “METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR PROVIDING ONLINE PROMOTIONSTHROUGH A SOCIAL NETWORK-BASED PLATFORM”, filed Mar. 3, 2008, and U.S.Provisional Application No. 61/078,724, entitled “METHOD AND SYSTEM FORPROVIDING ONLINE PROMOTIONS THROUGH A SOCIAL NETWORK-BASED PLATFORM”,filed Jul. 7, 2008.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates generally to integrating onlinepromotions/campaigns with social networks. More specifically, thepresent invention enables organizations to run promotions that areintegrated with the viral features of social networks.

BACKGROUND

Social networking sites offer consumer applications, such as uploadingand sharing photographs and notes with friends, generating personalizednewsfeeds that show a user the latest news and activities of the user'sfriends on the social networking site, and requesting another user onthe social networking site to become a friend within the user's socialnetwork.

SUMMARY

An online promotion technology is integrated with a social network-basedplatform. An organization may use the online promotion technology to runa variety of campaign or promotional formats online including, but notlimited to, sweepstakes, contests, instant win games,participant-generated content contests (including contests where thegeneral public votes to determine the winner or winners), quizzes,games, company-branded games (including advergames), prediction markets,product sampling, providing coupons or discounts as a way to increaseproduct and/or brand awareness, to collect consumer information, and todrive purchases. The social network-based platform provides viralfeatures, such as the invite friends feature, newsfeeds, minifeeds,notifications, requests, and an indication of a user's selectedapplications on the user's social network profile page, that advertiseand spread the word about the promotion and the organization.

When a participant enters an online promotion, the participant is ableto select the names of friends within the social network to receive aninvitation to enter the promotion. In addition, after a participantenters the promotion, the social network-based platform generates anewsfeed that appears on the newsfeed page of a selection of theparticipant's social network friends. This newsfeed not only containstext telling readers about the promotion that their friend entered butalso contains graphical banners promoting the brand of the organizationrunning the promotion and encouraging readers to enter the promotion.Readers may click on these banners, on the newsfeed text, or on otherprovided links to be directed to the promotion entry form. In oneembodiment the graphical banners may be videos, artwork or audio clipsuploaded by participants of participant-generated content contests.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 depicts a block diagram of a plurality of client devices, asocial network server, a mobile telephone network server, and a webapplication server coupled via a network, according to one embodiment.

FIG. 2 depicts a block diagram illustrating an example system forgenerating and running an online promotion through a socialnetwork-based platform, the system to include a web application servercoupled to a promotions database and/or a participant database,according to one embodiment.

FIG. 3A depicts a block diagram illustrating an example of a socialnetwork user database that stores social network user profileinformation and a user's social network contacts, according to oneembodiment.

FIG. 3B depicts a block diagram illustrating an example of a participantdatabase that stores participant profile information and participantresponses, according to one embodiment.

FIG. 3C depicts a block diagram illustrating an example of a promotionsdatabase that stores organization profile information, promotioninformation, and promotion banners, according to one embodiment.

FIG. 4 depicts a flow diagram illustrating an example process ofestablishing a customized promotion with the web application server,according to one embodiment.

FIGS. 5A and 5B depict a flow diagram illustrating an example process ofprocessing promotion entries and post-promotion processing, according toone embodiment.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Described in detail below is a system and method of providing anorganization or company a web-based promotion technology to run anonline promotion integrated with one or more social network-basedplatforms in order to take advantage of their viral features. The termssocial network-based platform and social network may be usedinterchangeably. The terms promotion and campaign may be usedinterchangeably. Organizations include, but are not limited to,individuals, for-profit companies or businesses, non-profitorganizations, clubs, associations, community groups, and governmentorganizations. Additionally, an organization may promote a third partyorganization's goods and/or services. The terms organization andbusiness may be used interchangeably. Social network-based platformsinclude, but are not limited to social networks, such as Facebook,MySpace, Friendster, Bebo, Orkut, Hi5, and Ning; social networkaggregators that consolidate updates from social websites, such associal networks, social bookmarking sites, and blog entries, that allowa user using multiple social websites to have a consolidated stream ofinformation on all their activities across those websites, such asFriendFeed and Socialthing!; specialized social networks, for exampleYouTube which is dedicated to sharing video; online virtual worlds thatallow users to meet and network with other users, such as Second Life;services that allow websites external to social networks to accesssocial network user data, such as FriendConnect, Facebook Connect andMySpace Data Availability; and other Web 2.0 platforms that allow formaking connections, sharing, and communicating through the use of viralelements.

Consumers may participate in the online promotion through one or moresocial network-based platforms, and the social network-based platforms'viral features are adapted to spread word of the online promotion. Viralfeatures include, but are not limited to, invite friend features,newsfeeds, minifeeds, other features that display online activities ofusers and people in the users' social network, notifications, requests,other social network-based platform features that enable messages to bedelivered to members of the one or more social network-based platforms,and an indication of a user's selected applications on the user's socialnetwork profile page.

Various aspects of the invention will now be described. The followingdescription provides specific details for a thorough understanding andenabling description of these examples. One skilled in the art willunderstand, however, that the invention may be practiced without many ofthese details. Additionally, some well-known structures or functions maynot be shown or described in detail to avoid unnecessarily obscuring therelevant description.

The terminology used in the description presented below is intended tobe interpreted in its broadest reasonable manner, even though it isbeing used in conjunction with a detailed description of certainspecific examples of the invention. Certain terms may even be emphasizedbelow; however, any terminology intended to be interpreted in anyrestricted manner will be overtly and specifically defined as such inthis Detailed Description section.

Organizations have long used promotions, such as sweepstakes, contests,instant win games, participant-generated content contests (includingcontests where the general public votes to determine the winner orwinners), quizzes, games, company-branded games (including advergames),product sampling, and coupons or discounts, as a way to increase productand/or brand awareness, collect consumer information, and drivepurchases. The internet has proven to be a highly effective medium forrunning promotions, and many websites have used online contests andother online promotions as a way to drive traffic to their websites andto collect consumer information.

Recently, social networks such as MySpace and Facebook have become anincreasingly popular way for internet users to interact with friends andshare information online. Social network users have the ability toeasily share information with others in their social network. Forexample, social networks provide tools such as automatically generatednewsfeeds and minifeeds that display the online activities of users andpeople in the user's social network, and simple-to-use ‘invite friends’features allow a social network user to easily invite friends in theuser's social network to join an event or action or even invite friendsnot currently participating in a social network to join that socialnetwork and the event. A social network user may discover new productsthrough the recommendations of friends within the social network. Thus,social networks have become an enormously powerful mechanism for virallyspreading information about brands, products, ideas, and people.

Some organizations running online promotions have tried to tap intosocial networks by advertising their promotions to social network usersvia online banners within social networks. However, when a socialnetwork user clicks on one of these banners they are directed to theorganization's website outside of the social network where they enterthe promotion. While this method of advertising promotions throughsocial networks has enabled these organizations to encourage some socialnetwork users to enter their promotion, it has not enabled them tobenefit from the viral or word-of-mouth power of the social networksbecause users are directed outside of the social network to interactwith the promotion. For this reason, up until now, organizations runningpromotions have been unable to harness the full power of socialnetworks.

Described below is a promotion technology to be integrated withparticipating social network-based platforms that may be used by anorganization to run a customized online promotion so that theorganization's promotion can tap into a number of viral featuresprovided by the social network-based platforms including, but notlimited to, friend invite feature, newsfeeds, minifeeds, other socialnetwork-based platform features that display the online activities ofusers and the people in their social network, notifications, requests,other social network-based platform features for delivering messages tomembers of the one or more social network-based platforms, and anindication of a user's selected applications on the user's socialnetwork profile page, that can help to spread the word about thepromotion in a highly efficient and cost effective way.

FIG. 1 illustrates a block diagram 100 of a plurality of client devices102A-N with user interfaces 104A-N, a social network server 108, asocial network user database 110, a mobile telephone network server 109,a mobile telephone user database 111, a web application server 112, aparticipant database 116, and a promotions database 114 coupled via anetwork 106, according to one embodiment. More than one social networkserver 108, mobile telephone network server 109, social network userdatabase 110, and mobile telephone user database 111 may be coupled tothe network 106. Also, more than one web application server 112,promotions database 114, and participant database 116 may be coupled tothe network 106. Only one of each is shown in FIG. 1 for clarity.

The plurality of client devices 102A-N may be any system, device, and/orany combination of devices/systems that are able to establish aconnection with another device, a server and/or other systems. Theclient devices 102A-N typically include display or other outputfunctionalities to present data exchanged between the device and a user.For example, the client devices may be, but are not limited to, aserver, a desktop computer, a computer cluster, a mobile computingdevice such as a notebook, a laptop computer, a handheld computer, amobile phone, a smart phone, a PDA, a Blackberry™ device, and/or aniPhone, etc. In particular, the Google Android software platform allowsdevelopers to write software applications to integrate third partyapplications with users of mobile devices, and Apple also allows thirdparty applications developers access to the iPhone platform. In oneembodiment, the client devices 102A-N are coupled to the network 106. Insome embodiments, the client devices may be directly connected to oneanother.

The network 106, to which the client devices 102A-N are coupled, may bea telephonic network, an open network, such as the internet, or aprivate network, such as an intranet and/or the extranet. The network106 may be any collection of distinct networks operating wholly orpartially in conjunction to provide connectivity to the client devicesand servers, and may appear as one or more networks to the servicedsystems and devices. In one embodiment, communications may be achievedby a secure communications protocol, such as secure sockets layer (SSL),or transport layer security (TLS). In one embodiment, communications maybe achieved via one or more wireless networks.

The client devices 102A-N may be coupled to the network, for example,the internet, via a dial-up connection, a digital subscriber loop (DSL,ADSL), cable modem, and/or other types of connection. Thus, the clientdevices 102A-N may communicate with remote servers (e.g., web server,host server, mail server, instant messaging server) that provide accessto user interfaces of the World Wide Web via a web browser, for example.

The user databases 110, 111, promotions database 114, and participantdatabase 116 may store information such as software, descriptive data,images, system information, drivers, and/or any other data item utilizedby parts of the social network server 108, the mobile telephone networkserver 109, and/or the web application server 112 for operation. Userdatabases 110, 111, promotions database 114, and participant database116 may be managed by a database management system (DBMS), for examplebut not limited to, Oracle, DB2, Microsoft Access, Microsoft SQL Server,PostgreSQL, MySQL, FileMaker, etc. An example set of data to be storedin the social network user database 110, participant database 116, andpromotions database 114 is further illustrated in FIGS. 3A-3C.

The social network server 108 may be any combination of software agentsand/or hardware modules for establishing a social network-based platformfor users. The social network server 108 may facilitate interaction andcommunication among users of the client devices 102A-N, with the webapplication server 112, or with other related applications and/orsystems via the network 106. For example, the social network server 108may provide a platform for users of the client devices 102A-N who aremembers of the social network to upload photos and notes to share withother users of client devices 102A-N who are also members of the samesocial network. In one embodiment, the social network server 108 mayfacilitate sharing of information about news and activities of membersof the social network with other members designated as friends withinthe social network. The functionality of the social network-basedplatform may also be distributed across multiple servers disposed acrossthe network 106.

The social network server 108 is, in some embodiments, able to store andretrieve data from the social network user database 110. In someembodiments, the social network server 108 is able to provide data fromthe social network user database 110 to another authenticated server,such as the web application server 112 via the network 106. Multiplesocial network servers 108 may be coupled to the network 106, with oneor more social network servers 108 providing services for distinctsocial networks.

The mobile telephone network server 109 may be any combination ofsoftware agents and/or hardware modules for establishing a mobiletelephone network for users. The mobile telephone network server 109 mayfacilitate interaction and communication among users of the clientdevices 102A-N, with the web application server 112, or with otherrelated applications and/or systems via the network 106. For example,the mobile telephone network server 109 may provide a platform for usersof the client devices 102A-N who are members of the mobile telephonenetwork to call or text message other users of the client devices102A-N. In one embodiment, the mobile telephone network server 109 maysupport web browsing over a mobile telephone.

The mobile telephone network server 109 is, in some embodiments, able tostore and retrieve data from the mobile telephone user database 111. Insome embodiments, the mobile telephone network server 109 is able toprovide data from the mobile telephone user database 111 to anotherauthenticated server, such as the web application server 112 via thenetwork 106. Multiple mobile telephone network servers 109 may becoupled to the network 106, with one or more mobile telephone networkservers 109 providing services for distinct mobile telephone networks.

The web application server 112 may be any combination of software agentsand/or hardware modules for generating a customized online promotion tobe used with a widget, and/or webpage, and/or promotion application tobe integrated with one or more social network-based platforms. Thepromotion application is used with a social network-based platform andallows participants to enter the promotion from within the socialnetwork-based platform.

Alternatively or additionally, the web application server 112 maygenerate a customized mobile telephone promotion application for use inconjunction with a mobile telephone network platform and/or with mobiletelephone devices. The mobile telephone promotion application permits amobile telephone user to view and enter promotions generated by the webapplication server 112 without having to enter the internet browser onthe mobile telephone to enter the promotion.

The web application server 112 is, in some embodiments, able tocommunicate with client devices 102A-N via the network 106 to receivedetailed information about the promotion from the sponsoringorganization's representative through promotion administration software.The detailed information may be stored and retrieved in the promotionsdatabase 114 via the network 106.

After a customized online promotion has been integrated with a promotionapplication within a participating social network-based platform and/ora widget and/or a webpage, the web application server 112 may, in oneembodiment, receive completed promotion entry forms or promotion entrydata from participants. In one embodiment, a participant may interactwith the promotion or enter the promotion without submitting a promotionentry form. In one embodiment, the web application server 112 is able tocommunicate with the social network server 108 via the network 106 toreceive information about a participant from the participant's socialnetwork profile. The entry form data and the information from theparticipant's social network profile may be stored, subject to a socialnetwork's privacy and third party developer guidelines, in theparticipant database 116 via the network 106 for later retrieval andanalysis.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram 200 illustrating a system for providing acustomized online promotion through the promotion administrationsoftware and integrating the online promotion with one or moresocial-network-based platforms and/or mobile telephone networkplatforms. The system may include a web application server 112 coupledto a promotions database 114 and/or a participant database 116,according to one embodiment.

In the example of FIG. 2, the web application server 112 includes anetwork interface 210, a firewall (not shown), a communications module220, a promotion generation module 230, a data collection module 240, adata analysis module 250, and a winner selection and notification module260. Additional modules or fewer modules may be included. The webapplication server 112 may be communicatively coupled to the promotionsdatabase 114, and/or the participant database 116 as illustrated in FIG.2. In some embodiments, the promotions database 114 and/or theparticipant database 116 are partially or entirely internal to the webapplication server 112.

In the example of FIG. 2, the network interface 210 may be one or morenetworking devices that enable the web application server 112 to mediatedata in a network with an entity that is external to the server, throughany communications protocol supported by the server and the externalentity. The network interface 210 may include, but is not limited to,one or more of a network adaptor card, wireless network interface card,router, access point, wireless router, switch, multilayer switch,protocol converter, gateway, bridge, bridge router, hub, digital mediareceiver, and/or repeater.

A firewall may, in some embodiments, be included to govern and/or managepermission to access data in a computer network, such as promotionsdatabase 114 and/or participant database 116, and track varying levelsof trust between different machines and/or applications. The firewallmay be any number of modules having any combination of hardware and/orsoftware components able to enforce a predetermined set of access rightsbetween a particular set of machines and applications, machines andmachines, and/or applications and applications, for example, to regulatethe flow of traffic and resource sharing between these varying entities.The firewall may additionally manage and/or have access to an accesscontrol list which details permissions including for example, the accessand operation rights of an object by an individual, a machine, and/or anapplication, and the circumstances under which the permission rightsstand.

Other network security functions may be performed or included in thefunctions of the firewall including, but not limited to,intrusion-prevention, intrusion detection, and personal firewalls. Insome embodiments, the functionalities of the network interface 210 andthe firewall are partially or wholly combined and the functions of whichmay be implemented in any combination of software and/or hardware, inpart or in whole.

In the example of FIG. 2, the web application server 112 includes thecommunications module 220 or a combination of communications modulescommunicatively coupled to the network interface 210 to manage aone-way, two-way, and/or multi-way communication sessions over aplurality of communications protocols. In one embodiment, thecommunications module 220 receives data, information, commands,requests, and/or text-based messages over a network. In one embodiment,the communications module 220 receives communications from a network(e.g., internet, wired and/or wireless network) initiated via aweb-interface.

Since the communications module 220 is typically compatible withreceiving and/or interpreting data originating from variouscommunication protocols, the communications module 220 is able toestablish parallel and/or serial communication sessions with users ofremote client devices for data and command exchange (e.g., userinformation and/or user content).

In addition, the communications module 220 can manage log-on requestsreceived from one or more users connecting to the web application server112 including, but not limited to, generating a new promotion, enteringa promotion, reviewing participant data for a promotion, selecting awinner for a promotion, and/or providing information to be included witha notification and/or newsletter to be sent to participants of apromotion. In some instances, authenticated sessions are managed by thecommunications module 220 for user logon processes.

For example, the system may utilize a username/email and passwordidentification method for authorizing access. The communications module220 may gather data to determine if a user is authorized to access thesystem and if so, securely logs the user into the system. In otherembodiments, other forms of identity authentication, such as securitycards and/or digital certificates may be utilized. A user may be able tospecify and/or obtain a logon ID after subscribing or registering.

The communications module 220 may also establish communication sessionswith a social networking server 108 to transmit customized promotionbanners and other information for displaying information about apromotion on a webpage within a social networking site or to transmit orreceive information about participants.

One embodiment of web application server 112 includes a promotiongeneration module 230. The promotion generation module 230 may be anycombination of software agents and/or hardware components able torequest and receive detailed information from an organization or companyabout the promotion to be generated. Based upon the receivedinformation, the promotion generation module 230 generates a customizedonline promotion to be used with a widget and/or webpage and/orpromotion application integrated with one or more social network-basedplatforms. In one embodiment, a customized business version of thepromotion application is provided to the administrator of anorganization running a promotion for adding to the organization's socialnetwork page in order to display a promotion banner on theorganization's social network page. In one embodiment, the promotionapplication can be used to display a promotion banner on theorganization's social network page because the promotion application isable to distinguish between downloads to a participant social networkpage and an organization social network page. In one embodiment, theorganization's social network page may be run from a business page ofthe social network, if the social network provides business pages fororganizations.

In one embodiment, a line of software code may also be provided by thepromotion generation module 230 for pasting into the organization'swebpage or other webpages external to participating social network-basedplatforms. The software code downloads a widget onto the webpage thatdisplays information for advertising the promotion and the organization.The widget integrates the promotion with the viral features of theparticipating social network-based platforms and accesses the datacontained in a participant's social network-based platform profilewithout requiring participants to migrate away from the widget. Thewidget may include, but is not limited to, clickable banners, clickabletext, and clickable links. Upon clicking on any of the clickableobjects, the participant may be provided a promotion entry form or someother way to interact with the promotion in order to enter thepromotion.

In one embodiment the organization may be provided with the option todisplay a clickable banner, button or link on the website(s) instead ofa widget. Clicking on the banner, button or link would take aparticipant to a webpage containing the promotion entry form

In one embodiment, the promotion generation module 230 provides alisting page within each participating social network-based platform ofall currently active promotions accessible from a webpage within thesocial network-based platform. In one embodiment, the listing page onlyincludes promotions that have recently been entered by the participant'ssocial network friends. In one embodiment, the listing page onlyincludes promotions that relate to the interests and/or demographic ofthe participant as determined by the participant's social networkprofile data. In one embodiment, the participant can pre-define whichtypes of promotions he wishes to appear on the listing page. In oneembodiment, a listing page of all currently active promotions isprovided on a webpage or webpages external to the participating socialnetwork-based platforms

In one embodiment, the promotion generation module 230 may provide apromotion application to a participant for adding to the participant'ssocial network profile, if the participant has not previously entered apromotion through the promotion application.

In one embodiment, an online promotion for use with mobile telephones ona mobile telephone network platform may allow a mobile device user toaccess the promotion in multiple ways. The mobile device user maydownload to his mobile device a mobile phone promotion applicationdesigned for use with mobile devices, such as an iPhone. Alternatively,the mobile device user may access the device's browser and enter apromotion through the social network of his choice or the website of theorganization offering the promotion or another website external to theparticipating social network-based platforms. In both situations, theviral features of the social network or networks associated with thepromotion are available to increase awareness of the promotion and theorganization.

In one embodiment, the mobile telephone promotion application allowslocation-specific promotions to be offered. For example, if a mobilephone user is in proximity to a business running a promotion such as acontest or a coupon giveaway, the user receives an alert inviting theuser to enter or redeem the promotion.

In one embodiment, the mobile telephone promotion application may accessglobal positioning system (GPS) data provided by a participant's mobiletelephone. The GPS data can be used in conjunction with anorganization's promotion. For example, the GPS data may be used todetermine the eligibility of a participant for a promotion For example,if a participant is located within a predetermined area within a certaintime window, the participant would be eligible for a promotion or anincentive. Alternatively or additionally, the GPS data can be used toevaluate a participant, for example, measuring how quickly a participantcompletes a scavenger hunt promotion that requires participants to visitcertain points in a city or region. In one embodiment, the GPS data maybe used in the generation of activity feeds (such as newsfeeds andminifeeds) that display information about participants' interactionswith promotions that are being run using the mobile telephone promotionapplication. For example, when a participant enters a store that isrunning a promotion, a newsfeed may be generated in the participatingsocial network based platforms. In one embodiment, the GPS data can alsobe used by the mobile telephone promotion application to enable aparticipant to interact with the promotion.

One embodiment of the web application server 112 includes a datacollection module 240. The data collection module 240 may be anycombination of software agents and/or hardware components able togenerate promotion entry forms for a participant and to receivecompleted promotion entry forms from participants, through thecommunications module 220. The promotion entry form may advertise thepromotion and allow the participant to interact with the promotion byentering the promotion and/or providing required information prior toentering the promotion.

In one embodiment, the data collection module 240 may provide a methodto advertise the promotion and for the participant to interact with thepromotion without the explicit use of promotion entry forms. Forexample, the data collection module 240 may collect data fromparticipants through questions used in part of a quiz promotion.

In one embodiment, a participant may be advised by the data collectionmodule 240 that by downloading the promotion application, theparticipant grants the web application server 112 permission to accessthe participant's unique identifier within the social network and/or themobile telephone network and also accepts the terms of entering apromotion. Access to a participant's unique identifier enables the webapplication server 112 to send targeted information relating to thepromotion or the organization running the promotion to the participantthrough the social network server 108. Terms for entering a promotionmay include agreeing to receive unsolicited information, for example, anewsletter sent by either the web application server 112 or theorganization running the promotion. Alternatively or additionally, theterms for entering a promotion may include the participant's permissionfor the organization running the promotion to use the informationprovided by the participant to promote other goods or services that mayor may not be related to the underlying promotion or to promote otherrelated business activities of the organization. In one embodiment, ifan organization is promoting a third party organization's goods and/orservices, the terms for entering a promotion may include theparticipant's permission for the third party organization to useinformation provided by the participant for related business activities.

One embodiment of the web application server 112 includes a dataanalysis module 250. The data analysis module 250 may be any combinationof software agents and/or hardware components able to analyze the datacollected from participants in a particular promotion through theparticipants' promotion entry forms or other forms of data resultingfrom participants' interaction with the promotion. The data analysismodule 250 may generate data that include, but are not limited to, dateand time of entries, unique identifiers of participants, participantinformation, such as email address or date of birth, and a demographicbreakdown of participants by age, gender, zip code, the average age ofparticipants, etc. The data analysis module 250 may also generateinformation about the types of contests, prizes, or offers thatgenerated the greatest number of entries, for example sporting eventtickets. In one embodiment, the data analysis module 250 may providenames and/or unique identifiers of participants who invited the largestnumber of friends to enter the promotion and/or names of participantswhose friend invites ultimately resulted in the greatest total number ofpeople who entered the promotion. In one embodiment, the data may benumerical, graphical, or both.

The data analysis module 250, through communications with thecommunications module 220, may make the data available to anorganization running the promotion at a particular secured website andmay also provide the analyzed data in a downloadable format, for examplein an Excel spreadsheet. Alternatively or additionally, the data may besent to the organization in an email through the communications module220.

In one embodiment, the data analysis module 250 may verify one or moreof the data provided by participants in the entry form or duringinteraction with the promotion. In one non-limiting example, aparticipant may be required to be at least 18 years old and/or from aspecific country, state or location before participating in a particularpromotion. Thus, the participant's age and/or geography may be verifiedprior to permitting the participant to enter the promotion. In anothernon-limiting example, a participant's email address or other entryinformation may be verified before permitting the participant to enterthe promotion or if a participant is selected as a winner, theparticipant's email address or other entry information may be confirmedprior to awarding of the prize.

One embodiment of the web application server 112 includes a winnerselection and notification module 260. The winner selection andnotification module 260 may be any combination of software agents and/orhardware components able to randomly select one or more winners from allthe promotion entries, as specified by the promotion rules.Alternatively, the winner selection and notification module 260 mayselect a winner according to other criteria specified by the rules ofthe promotion. The winner selection and notification module 260 may notalways be used by an organization to select a winner. The organizationmay choose to select its own winner, for example, based upon subjectivecriteria such as the best slogan submitted for a product. If theorganization selects the winner, the organization may submit the name ofthe winner or winners to the winner selection and notification module260. Alternatively, submission of entries that are subjectivelyevaluated may be thrown open to judging by members of the socialnetwork. For example, each member of the social network may be permittedto vote a maximum number of times during the contest or a maximum numberof times per day for a preferred entry, and the winning entry is the onethat garners the greatest total number of votes at the close of thepromotion. By integrating user voting within the social network-basedplatform, viral features, such as newsfeeds and minifeeds, furtherspread the word about the promotion. For example, if the promotion werea video contest, members of a social network could vote for theirfavorite video, and the act of voting would generate a newsfeed thatincluded, but is not limited to, the name of the person, the name of thevideo that the person voted for, and the name of the organizationsponsoring the video contest. In addition, the video itself may beembedded in the newsfeed.

Once a winner is selected, whether by the winner selection andnotification module 260, by the organization running the promotion, byvoting, or by another method, the winner selection and notificationmodule 260 may, through the communications module 220, notify all theparticipants who entered the promotion of the identity of the winner orwinners. Notification may be by email or through custom messagesdirected to the social network inbox of all participants. In oneembodiment, instant win game contestants will be instantly notified onthe screen as to whether or not they have won a prize immediately afterentering and/or through one of the above notification procedures.

FIG. 3A depicts a block diagram 300A illustrating an example of a socialnetwork user database 110 that stores social network user profileinformation 110A and the user's social network contact information 110B,according to one embodiment.

In the example of FIG. 3A, the social network user profile database 110Acan store user profile data, including descriptive data of personalinformation such as, but not limited to, a first name and last name ofthe user, a valid email address, a unique user identifier within thesocial network, birth date, gender, occupation, etc. User profile datamay further include interest information, which may include, but is notlimited to, activities, hobbies, photos, etc. In one embodiment, thesocial network server 108 may store the information in the socialnetwork user database 110, and the web application server 112 may bepermitted to access information in the social network user database 110if the user grants permission. The database 110 may also store a user'ssocial network contacts, for example, in database 110B. A user's socialnetwork contacts may be provided via one or more software agents and/orhardware modules coupled to the database 110B. For example, a user mayinvite a member of the social network to become a friend, and theinvited member may become listed as such in the user's list of socialnetwork contacts if the invited member agrees.

A mobile telephone user database 111 for a mobile telephone networkstores information similar to that of the social network user profile110A portion of the social network user database 110, such as name,address, and mobile telephone number.

FIG. 3B depicts a block diagram 300B illustrating an example of aparticipant database 116 that stores participant profile information116A and a participant's survey responses 116B, according to oneembodiment.

In the example of FIG. 3B, a participant's profile information is storedin database 116A. Participant profile information includes descriptivedata of personal information such as, but not limited to, a first nameand last name of the user, a valid email address, birth date, gender,zip code, one or more social network affiliations and/or mobiletelephone network affiliation, and a unique identifier on the one ormore social networks and/or mobile telephone network the participant isaffiliated with, etc.

The database 116 may also store a participant's responses to surveysand/or requests to invite friends, for example, in database 116B. Aprerequisite to being entered in a promotion may be for a user tocomplete a survey provided by the administrator of the promotion. Surveyquestions may include, but are not limited to, providing a name, anemail address, demographic information, an address for receiving freesamples and/or promotion materials and preference for joining a mailinglist. In one embodiment, survey questions may include the option ofelecting to join one or more groups associated with the one or moresocial network-based platforms and the organization or a third partyorganization. For example, a participant may be given the opportunity toclick a button or a link in order to become a fan of the organization'sFacebook page, and the organization is then permitted to send messagesvia the Facebook platform to this participant so long as the participantremains a fan. In one embodiment, clicking on a link or a button orchecking a box to elect to become a member of a group associated with anorganization will automatically result in the participant becoming amember. Alternatively, clicking on a link or button or checking a box toelect to become a member of a group associated with an organization willtrigger a pop-up window or a new browser window to open where theparticipant can take action to become a member of a group. Uponsubmission of a promotion entry form, the participant is shown a webpagelisting the names of the participant's social network friends, and hecan select friends to invite to enter the promotion. An organization mayprovide an incentive to contestants for inviting friends by, forexample, increasing the participant's chances of winning for each friendthat is invited or for each invited friend that subsequently enters thepromotion.

FIG. 3C depicts a block diagram 300C illustrating an example of apromotions database 114 that receives promotion information, accordingto one embodiment.

In the example of FIG. 3C, the profile information for an organizationsubmitting a promotion is stored in database 114A. Organization profileinformation includes, but is not limited to, the name of theorganization, address of the organization, a website address for theorganization, names for one or more administrators within theorganization, an email address for one of the administrators of thepromotion, login identification, and passwords.

The promotions database 114 may also store promotion information indatabase 114B. Promotion information may include, but is not limited to,offered prize or prizes, discounts or other incentives, and descriptionsof those incentives, value of the incentives, official rules of thepromotion, requirements to enter the promotion, survey questions, theactive dates for the promotion, terms and conditions, and the privacypolicy of the organization with respect to information collected fromparticipants.

The promotions database 114 may also store banners and widgetsassociated with a promotion in database 114C. Types of banners include,but are not limited to, banners for placing on an organization's websiteto advertise the organization's promotion, interactive widgets,mini-banners displayed in newsfeeds generated by the social networkserver 108 that advertise the promotion, and banners for displaying to aparticipant after the participant submits his entry to the promotion. Inone embodiment, banners may be any size including, but not limited to,standard banner sizes, oriented horizontally, or oriented vertically.

FIG. 4 depicts a flow diagram 400 illustrating an example process ofestablishing a customized promotion with the web application server,according to one embodiment. Prior to permitting a company ororganization to generate a customized promotion, the company ororganization must first create an account with the web applicationserver by transmitting account information to the system, preferablythrough a website, but mailed-in or faxed applications may also be usedfor creating an account on the system. The system receives the accountinformation at block 405. Account information may include, but is notlimited to, the organization's name, people permitted access to thecompany account, a billing address and billing information, such as acredit card number or billing authorization information. Theorganization is either assigned a login name and password, or theorganization's representative may choose them. By providing the correctlogin information for an organization, the organization's representativeis permitted to access the information for each promotion that theorganization has created.

After creating an account, at block 410 the organization'srepresentative is prompted online by a promotion administration softwarefor information to set up the organization's promotion. A promotion mayinclude, but is not limited to, sweepstakes such as prize draws andinstant win sweepstakes, contests such as participant-generated contentcontests like video, photo, or music contests and quizzes, discountvouchers or coupons, games, prediction markets, and product sampling.Details of the promotion may include, but are not limited to, the nameof the promotion, the prize or prizes, discounts or other incentives tobe offered along with a description and estimated value of theincentives, when the promotion begins and ends, requirements to enterthe promotion, incentives to invite friends, terms and conditions of thepromotion, and any applicable privacy policy. In one embodiment,standard terms and conditions and/or privacy policy may be offered tothe organization for use with the promotion. In one embodiment, theorganization may define a limit on the overall number of interactionsthat users may have with a promotion, for example, a limit on theoverall number of discount coupons that may be downloaded during thepromotion. The details of the promotion are received by the system atblock 410.

After submission of the promotion information, at block 415 theorganization's representative is prompted to define survey questionsand/or text to be included in a customized promotion entry form to bepresented to a potential participant. Survey questions may include, butare not limited to, name, address, email address, interests, hobbies,vocation, etc. In one embodiment, questions include data used by anorganization for marketing, branding, and/or future product linedecisions. The system receives this information at block 415.

At block 420, the company is prompted to upload to the system acustomized banner or banners for the promotion. Alternatively, templatebanner designs may be offered to the company for selection. Banners maybe used to advertise the promotion and/or the brand of the organizationsponsoring the promotion. Several types of banners may be uploaded,including but not limited to, a banner to place on the organization'ssocial network webpage or company webpage, on other webpages within orexternal to a participating social network-based platform, or on apromotion widget on webpages within or external to participating socialnetwork-based platforms to advertise the promotion; mini-banners thatmay be displayed with newsfeeds, minifeeds and other similar useractivity display features that are automatically generated when aconsumer enters the promotion; and a banner for display when aparticipant has finished entering the promotion. Banners are clickableand may direct a participant to a promotion entry form or other entrypoint for interacting with a promotion. Alternatively, banners displayedafter the participant has entered the promotion may direct theparticipant back to the organization's website or social network page.The system receives the banners and/or banner selections from theorganization at block 420.

At block 421, the organization is presented with a clickable button forintegrating its promotion with the promotion application in theparticipating social network-based platforms. Clicking this button willresult in the integration of the promotion with the promotionapplication in all participating social network-based platforms (PSNBP)at block 422. Participating social network-based platforms are thosesocial network-based platforms that are willing to support the promotionapplication and for which software is available to integrate thepromotion application with the particular social network-based platform.Examples of online social network-based platforms that may participateinclude Facebook, MySpace, Bebo, Orkut, and Friendster. Integrating apromotion with the promotion application within a participating socialnetwork-based platform enables participants to enter and interact withthe promotion within a social network upon clicking a link to thepromotion, such as found in a newsfeed or friend invite, for example. Itshould be noted that the organization does not need to maintain awebpage on a particular social network-based platform in order to havethe promotion integrated with that platform. In one embodiment,integrating a promotion enables the promotion to be integrated with theviral features of a social network. In one embodiment, it enables thepromotion to be included in the promotion listings page which isprovided by the promotion application in each of the participatingsocial network-based platforms and displays all promotions currentlyintegrated with the promotion application. In one embodiment, thepromotion applications' listing page of a given social network-basedplatform is presented to a promotion participant after completion of theentry process for a promotion so that the participant may find otherpromotions of interest to enter.

In one embodiment, an organization can choose which participating socialnetwork-based platforms they would like to integrate their promotionwith rather than automatically having their promotion integrated withall participating social network-based platforms.

At block 423, the organization is prompted to select where it would liketo locate the entry point or entry points for its promotion. It canchoose to locate the entry point(s) on one or more webpages external tothe participating social network-based platforms and/or on one or morewebpages within the participating social networks. The system receivesthe entry point information from the organization at block 423.

When the chosen entry point is a webpage external to the participatingsocial network-based platforms, a participant interacts with a widgetthat advertises the promotion on the website(s). The participant clickson the widget to enter the promotion, and the widget displays thepromotion entry form. The widget integrates the promotion with the viralfeatures of the participating social network-based platforms andaccesses the data contained in a participant's social network-basedplatform profile without requiring participants to migrate away from thewidget. In one embodiment, clicking on the widget enables theparticipant to interact with the promotion (e.g. play a game, enter aquiz, scratch an instant win card, upload a video) before theparticipant is required to complete the entry form. In one embodimentthe participant can interact with the promotion without completing anentry form. Upon completing the entry form or the promotion entryprocess through the widget, the participant is directed to invitefriends to the promotion by using one of two methods. The participantmay select friends from his social network friends list which isconnected to the widget via services such as Google's FriendConnect,Facebook's FacebookConnect, MySpace's DataAvailability project and othersimilar services that enable third-party applications or websitesexternal to social networks to access a user's data and friends listcontained within social networks, and to transmit users' activityinformation back to the newsfeeds, minifeeds and other such activityfeeds contained within social networks. Alternatively or additionally,the participant may type in friends' email addresses or select friendsfrom his email address book which the participant can download into thewidget from such email service providers as Gmail, Hotmail and YahooMail.

In one embodiment the participant interacts with the promotion via aninteractive webpage or webpages instead of a widget. The interactivewebpage or webpages provide an entry form for the promotion and enablethe participant to interact with the promotion. By connecting withservices such as Google's FriendConnect, Facebook's FacebookConnect,MySpace's DataAvailability project and other similar services, theinteractive webpage or webpages integrate the promotion with the viralfeatures of the participating social network-based platforms and accessthe data contained in a participant's social network-based platformprofile without requiring participants to migrate away from theinteractive webpage or webpages. In one embodiment, the participant mayclick on a banner, button, or link that takes the participant to theinteractive webpage or webpages for entering and interacting with thepromotion. In one embodiment, the banner, button, or link may be locatedon an organization's website which advertises the promotion; aparticipant who clicks on one of these objects will be taken to theinteractive webpage or webpages where he can enter and/or interact withthe promotion. In one embodiment, the interactive webpage or webpagesmay be hosted by the web application server 112.

In one embodiment, an organization may choose to use a webpage dedicatedto the entry process for their promotion, rather than a widget, becausethe widget may not provide sufficient graphics or other text, as desiredby the organization to advertise the promotion. In one embodiment, anorganization may select the widget because of its compact size andability to enable a participant to interact with and/or enter apromotion without the participant needing to migrate away from thewebpage upon which the widget is displayed, for example, theorganization's webpage

When the chosen entry point is on the organization's social networkwebpage or other webpage within one of the participating socialnetwork-based platforms, a participant clicks on a banner, widget, orlink that advertises the promotion on the particular webpage, and theparticipant is directed to add the promotion application to theparticipant's social network profile. Alternatively, the participant mayclick on a banner, a link in a newsfeed or minifeed, a link in a friendinvitation, or any link to the promotion generated by a viral feature ofthe social network-based platform, and the participant will be directedto add the promotion application to the participant's social networkprofile. In one embodiment, the participant may click on the banner,widget, or link and directly enter the promotion without downloading thepromotion application to his social network profile.

At decision block 425, the system determines if the organization haschosen to have an entry point to the promotion on a webpage external tothe participating social network-based platforms. If the organizationchooses to establish an entry point for the promotion on a webpage orwebpages external to the participating social network-based platforms(block 425-Yes), at block 430, the system provides software code, suchas HTML or Javascript code, that may be copied and pasted into a webpageor webpages. The software code displays a widget on the webpage(s); thewidget advertises the promotion and enables a participant to interactwith and enter the promotion, thus the widget functions as an entrypoint to the promotion. In one embodiment the organization can selectfrom a variety of widget templates that offer different design, layoutand color options. Each template has its own unique software code thatthe organization can copy and paste into a website(s) to display thewidget. In one embodiment the organization may be provided with theoption to display a clickable banner, button, or link on the webpage(s)instead of a widget. Clicking on the banner, button, or link would takea participant to a webpage containing the promotion entry form.

The process continues to block 435 where the system presents a list ofthe participating social network-based platforms with which theorganization's promotion has been integrated. The system also provideslinks corresponding to these participating social network-basedplatforms to which the organization can, if it wishes, add a promotionbanner/entry point to particular webpages within those participatingsocial networks. The webpages may be those that the organizationmaintains within the selected social network-based platforms.Alternatively or additionally, the webpages may also be maintained byentities other than the organization that permit the organization toinsert promotion banners/entry points. The system receives the selectedsocial network-based platforms at block 440.

In one embodiment, regardless of whether the organization chooses to adda promotion banner/entry point to particular webpages within theparticipating social network-based platforms, the promotion applicationwill list the organization's promotion on a promotion listing page, witha clickable link, within the participating social network basedplatforms. In one embodiment the organization's promotion will also belisted on a promotion listing webpage that is external to theparticipating social network-based platforms. Thus, a participant mayeasily find and enter the promotion without having to go to a particularorganization's webpage.

At block 445, the system provides the organization with the process foradding a banner to the webpages of the specified social network-basedplatforms. The details for publishing a banner on webpages withindifferent social network-based platforms may vary. However, as anexample, the process for publishing a promotion banner on theorganization's Facebook webpage(s) will be described. Clicking on theFacebook link provided at block 435 takes the organization'srepresentative to a Facebook page where the representative can click ona link to download the promotion application for publishing promotionbanners within Facebook. Because the application is downloaded to abusiness page on Facebook, the promotion application recognizes that theuser is an organization and provides customized features for businessusers. In one embodiment, the organization downloads a customizedbusiness version of the promotion application. The organization is thenprompted to provide its log-in information supplied to the promotionadministration software that it previously established at block 405.After inputting the log-in information, the organization is taken to awebpage where the organization's promotions that are integrated with thepromotion application in Facebook are listed. A banner publicationbutton is displayed next to each promotion which, when clicked, will addthe banner for that promotion to the organization's Facebook page(s).The process ends at block 499, and at this point the promotion is readyto be entered from the organization's social network page and/or awebpage external to the participating social networks. Alternatively,the start of the promotion may be delayed until a specific date receivedby the system at block 410.

In one embodiment, a promotion banner may be added to a webpage within aparticipating social network-based platform that is not controlled bythe organization running the promotion, if the controller of the webpageagrees. For the example Facebook platform, the controller of the webpagewould download the promotion application from within Facebook first andthen go through a similar process as described above for adding a bannerfor the promotion to the webpage.

In one embodiment, an organization may paste the software code fordisplaying a widget on one or more webpages within a participatingsocial network-based platform if the platform permits pasting softwarecode for widgets, for example the MySpace platform.

If the organization chooses to not publish the promotion on its ownwebpage or another webpage external to the social network-basedplatforms (block 425—No), the process continues at block 435 asdescribed above.

FIGS. 5A and 5B depict flow diagrams 500A and 500B illustrating anexample process of determining a participant's entry point to apromotion, processing promotion entries, and post-promotion processing,according to one embodiment.

The process starts at decision block 505 where the system determines ifa participant has indicated an interest in the promotion. Interest inthe promotion is indicated when a participant clicks on a link to enterthe promotion. There are multiple ways for a participant to enter apromotion. The participant may click on a widget, banner, or link on theorganization's website or e-newsletter, on a widget, banner, or link onother webpages external to the participating social network-basedplatforms, or on a widget, banner, or link within a social network-basedplatform, such as on the organization's webpage within a social networkor on a link generated by a viral feature of a social network, such as anewsfeed, minifeed, or friend invite. The participant may also click ona link in a banner advertisement, which will direct the participant tothe promotion widget or webpage for entering the promotion. If interestin the promotion is not detected (block 505—No), the system remains atdecision block 505 until a participant clicks on a promotion link.

If interest in the promotion is detected (block 505—Yes), at decisionblock 520, the system checks the date and time to determine if thepromotion is currently valid and still running. If the promotion hasended (block 520—No), at block 522, the system notifies the participantthat the promotion has expired.

The process continues to block 525 where the system may provide arandomly selected winner or winners for the promotion and transmit thename and contact information of the winners to the organization.Alternatively, the organization may decide to choose a winner or winnersin a different manner on its own. For example, if the promotion isseeking entries for a new product slogan, the organization may have itsown judging procedures.

At block 530, the system may provide communications that notifypromotion participants of the winner or winners of the promotion. If thesystem does not select the winners, the organization may provide theinformation to the system. Winners and non-winners may receive differentmessages. Communications may be done through email or through custommessages directed to the social network inbox of all participants.Alternatively or additionally, winners may be listed on theorganization's website and/or the organization's social network page.

At block 535, the system may provide to the organization either raw dataand/or analyzed data with statistics and/or graphs about theparticipants who entered the promotion. Data may include, but are notlimited to, a demographic breakdown of participants by age, gender, zipcode, the average age of participants, etc. Data may be obtaineddirectly from participants' entry forms. In one embodiment, aggregatedata may be provided by analyzing data from participants' social networkprofiles. The data and/or analysis may be available at a particularsecured website. Alternatively or additionally, the system may email theresults to the organization. The process ends at block 599, and thepromotion is complete.

If the promotion has not ended (block 520—Yes), at decision block 536,the system determines whether the participant clicked on a link within asocial network-based platform. If the participant clicked on a widget orlink outside of a social network-based platform (block 536—No), thesystem provides the participant with an entry form at block 590. Thepromotion entry form prompts the participant for information that mayinclude, but is not limited to, name, email address, address, birthdate, gender, zip code, country of residence, and custom surveyquestions provided by the organization. In some embodiments, theparticipant may be able to interact with the promotion before fillingout an entry form (e.g. receive an instant win card before needing tocomplete an entry form) or interact with the promotion without fillingout an entry form (e.g. to vote for a participant-generated videoentry). In both cases, the widget integrates the promotion with theviral features of the participating social network-based platforms andaccesses the data contained in a participant's social network-basedplatform profile without requiring participants to migrate away from thewidget.

In one embodiment, the participant may be directed to enter and interactwith the promotion via a webpage rather than via a widget.

At block 591, the system receives the participant's entry form and/orany other information provided by the participant during the interactionwith the promotion.

After the participant has submitted the entry form or completed theentry process, the system invites the participant to invite theirfriends to interact with the promotion. In one embodiment, a participantmay increase his chances of winning a prize or increase the value of agiven discount or other incentive by inviting friends to enter thepromotion. At block 592, the system provides one or more ways to invitefriends to enter the promotion. In one embodiment, the system provideslinks to a list of services such as Google's FriendConnect, Facebook'sFacebookConnect, MySpace's DataAvailability project and other similarservices that enable third-party applications or websites external tosocial networks to access a user's data and friends list containedwithin social networks and to transmit participant activity data back tothe social networks. After logging into the chosen service, theparticipant is presented with a list of his social network friends, andhe can select friends to invite to the promotion. In one embodiment, aparticipant only needs to select from the list of services during thefirst interaction with the widget; during subsequent interactions withthe widget the participant will automatically be logged into the chosenservice. Further, by logging in to one of these services, theparticipant grants the web application server 112 access to theparticipant's unique identifier as assigned by the social network server108 of the social network-based platform maintaining the friends listaccessed by the participant. Then the web application server 112 ispermitted to access the personal data contained in the participant'ssocial network-based platform profile, subject to the social network'sprivacy and third party developer guidelines. Additionally, the webapplication server 112 is permitted to transmit information about theparticipant's interactions with the promotion to the newsfeeds,minifeeds and other user activity feeds of the participating socialnetwork. In addition, the participant agrees to the terms and conditionsand/or a privacy policy specified by the web application server thatapplies to the organization running the web application server.

The links in the list of services provided by the system at block 592may also include email service providers such as Gmail, Hotmail, andYahoo Mail. The participant may select friends from his email addressbooks maintained by these providers. Alternatively or additionally, theparticipant may simply type in friends' email addresses.

At block 593, the system receives the list of friends that theparticipant wishes to invite to enter the promotion or the emailaddresses of friends entered by the participant. The process continuesat block 565 as described below.

If the participant clicked on a link within a social network-basedplatform (block 536—Yes), at decision block 540, the system determineswhether the participant has previously downloaded the promotionapplication to the participant's social network profile. By downloadingthe promotion application, the web application server 112 is grantedaccess to the participant's unique identifier as assigned by the socialnetwork server 108 and is then able to access the personal datacontained in a participant's social network-based platform profile,subject to the social network's privacy and third party developerguidelines. In addition, the participant agrees to the terms andconditions and/or a privacy policy specified by the web applicationserver that applies to the organization running the web applicationserver. Because the web application server 112 stores each participant'sunique identifier number in a participant database 116, onlyparticipants who have not previously downloaded the promotionapplication are required to do so.

If the participant has not previously downloaded the promotionapplication (block 540—No), at block 545, the system directs theparticipant to a webpage with the promotion application available fordownloading. After the participant downloads the promotion applicationto the participant's social network profile, the process continues toblock 555. In one embodiment, the participant may simply click on apromotion banner and enter the promotion without downloading thepromotion application.

If the participant has previously downloaded the promotion application(block 540—Yes), at block 555, the system directs the participant to awebpage with a promotion entry form. The promotion entry form promptsthe participant for information that may include, but is not limited to,name, email address, address, birth date, gender, zip code, country ofresidence, and custom survey questions provided by the organization. Inone embodiment, the promotion entry form is pre-populated withinformation pulled directly from the participant's social networkprofile page. In one embodiment, the information pulled from theparticipant's social network profile page may be used to expedite orsimplify the promotion entry process for the participant, whether or nota promotion entry form is used by the promotion. For example, in aninstant win promotion, the participant's information may be used insteadof requesting the participant to fill out a promotion entry form.

The promotion entry form also includes terms and conditions and/or aprivacy policy that apply to the organization administering thepromotion. The organization's terms and conditions and/or privacy policymay be different from those of the company running the web applicationserver. By submitting the promotion entry form, the participant agreesto the organization's terms and conditions and/or privacy policy. Afterthe participant fills out the promotion entry form and submits it, thesystem receives the information from the promotion entry form at block560.

In one embodiment, a promotion may allow participants to uploadparticipant-generated content including, but not limited to, videos,photos, artwork, and audio clips. Non-limiting examples of promotionsthat may allow uploading of participant-generated content include videocontests, photo contests, and song contests. It should be noted thatsome social networks may not allow participant-generated content to beintegrated into a particular social network's newsfeeds, minifeeds, orother viral features.

In one embodiment, a participant may increase his chances of winning aprize or increase the value of a given discount or other incentive byinviting friends within his social network to enter the promotion. Atblock 561, the participant is provided a list of the names of allfriends in the participant's social network. The participant can theneasily select which friends to invite to the promotion. At block 562,the system receives the participant's friends list.

At block 565, an invitation highlighting the prize, prizes, discounts orother incentives offered by the organization is automatically sent tothe social network inbox of the selected friends. These friends canchoose to accept the invitation which will direct them to the promotionentry form where they, too, can choose to invite friends from theirsocial network.

At block 570, after the participant has completed entry into thepromotion via the promotion application or the promotion widget, thesystem directs the participant to a promotion webpage that lists otherpromotions generated by the web application server 112 that arecurrently valid. In one embodiment, the participant is presented with alist of promotions that are matched or related to the interest anddemographic information contained in the participant's social networkprofile data. In one embodiment, the participant is presented with alist of promotions that the participant's social network friends haverecently entered and/or interacted with. This list may include specificinformation about the interactions that the participant's social networkfriends have had with the promotions, for example, it may displayparticipant generated content that the participant's social networkfriends have recently uploaded to participant-generated contentcontests, or it may display the highest scores of the participant'ssocial network friends who have recently interacted with games orquizzes. The participant may also choose to return to the originalpromotion (without having to re-enter the promotion entry form) toinvite more friends to increase the participant's chances of winning aprize or increase the value of a given discount or other incentive.However, the rules of the promotion or social network-based platformrunning the promotion may limit a participant to entering the promotionno more than once a day or may limit the number of friends that can beinvited daily.

In one embodiment, after the participant has completed entry into thepromotion, the participant is directed to a custom banner thatencourages the participant to visit the organization's website or socialnetwork webpage.

In one embodiment, the participant is automatically directed to theorganization's website or social network page upon completing the entryprocess.

At block 575, the system automatically generates a newsfeed that mayappear on the newsfeed page of the participant's social network friends.This newsfeed not only contains text telling readers about the promotionthat their friend entered but may also contain graphical, audio, orvideo banners promoting the brand of the organization running thepromotion and encouraging readers to enter the promotion. Readers canclick on these banners or on the newsfeed text and they will be directedto the promotion entry form. In one embodiment, the system may alsoautomatically generate minifeeds that appear in each participant'sprofile indicating that the participant has entered the promotion alongwith graphical, audio, or video mini-banners promoting the brand of theorganization running the promotion. In one embodiment, other viralfeatures of the social network may be used to spread the word about theorganization and the promotion.

At decision block 580, the system determines whether a viewer hasclicked on a mini-banner, a link in a newsfeed, a link in a friendinvite, or any link to the promotion generated by a viral feature of thesocial network-based platform. If no participant has clicked on themini-banner, newsfeed link, friend invite, or other viral feature link(block 580—No), the system returns to decision block 505 to awaitanother's participant's interest in the promotion. If a participant doesclick on the mini-banner, newsfeed link, friend invite, or other viralfeature link (block 580—Yes), the system returns to decision block 520to determine whether the promotion is currently valid. The processcontinues as described above.

It will be apparent to a person skilled in the art that other types ofpromotions (e.g. sweepstakes, contests, instant win games,participant-generated content contests (including contests where thegeneral public votes to determine the winner or winners), quizzes,games, company-branded games (including advergames), product sampling,and give-aways such as coupons and vouchers) may also be run with theonline promotion technology, resulting in linking of these promotionswith the viral features of social networks. For these differentpromotion formats, the online promotion would be customized according tothe promotion's rules and unique features and still fall within thescope of this disclosure. For example, an instant win contest may beimplemented such that a participant who fills out an entry form isimmediately provided with an electronic scratch and win. In this case,the promotion rules may specify that the participant need not wait untilthe end of the promotion to be confirmed as a winner and to win a prize.

It will be apparent to a person skilled in the art that other versionsof the online promotion technology may also be implemented. For example,white-label versions of the promotion technology may be provided thatenable the organization to have more customized branding and featureswhile still enabling the promotion to benefit from the core technologywhich integrates promotions with the viral features of social networks.

Embodiments of the invention described above enable organizations to runpromotions that participants enter either within a social network orfrom outside of social network-based platforms and that take advantageof the viral power of social networks. By integrating promotions withthe friend invite features, newsfeeds, minifeeds and other features thatdisplay online activities of users and people in the users' socialnetwork, and notifications, requests, and other social network-basedplatform features to deliver messages to members of the one or moresocial network-based platforms, organizations are enabled to runpromotions that can be spread virally within the social networks. Aparticipant entering a promotion that is integrated with a socialnetwork-based platform can, with a few easy clicks, invite their socialnetwork friends to enter the contest. In addition, a participant'sfriends will be able to read about the promotion on their social networknewsfeed page as a result of the newsfeed that may be generated whensomeone enters a promotion that is run using the promotion technology.These are highly powerful ways for organizations to cost effectivelyspread the word about their promotions and their brands.

There are many possible compensation schemes through which an owner oradministrator of the promotion technology may receive compensationincluding, but not limited to, generating promotion applications andproviding related services. For example, the organization that wishes torun a promotion may be required to pay a flat fee for each promotion,the fee for the promotion may be proportional to the duration that thepromotion is active, and/or a fee may be charged for each uniqueparticipant who enters the promotion. Alternatively or additionally, forthe case of white-label versions of the promotion technology, a licensemay be granted to an organization for running one or more promotions. Inone embodiment, an organization such as a marketing agency may choose tolicense the promotion technology to run one or more promotions for athird party organization's goods and/or services.

The above detailed description of examples of the invention is notintended to be exhaustive or to limit the invention to the precise formdisclosed above. While specific embodiments of, and examples for, theinvention are described above for illustrative purposes, variousequivalent modifications are possible within the scope of the invention,as those skilled in the relevant art will recognize. For example, whileprocesses or blocks are presented in a given order, alternativeembodiments may perform routines having functions, or employ systemshaving blocks, in a different order, and some processes or blocks may bedeleted, moved, added, subdivided, combined, and/or modified to providealternatives or sub-combinations. Each of these processes or blocks maybe implemented in a variety of different ways. Also, while processes orblocks are at times shown as being performed in series, these processesor blocks may instead be performed in parallel, or may be performed atdifferent times.

Various features are described which may be exhibited by someembodiments and not by others. Similarly, various requirements aredescribed which may be requirements for some embodiments but not otherembodiments.

The use of examples anywhere in this specification including examples ofany terms discussed herein is illustrative only, and in no way limitsthe scope and meaning of the disclosure or of any exemplified term.Likewise, the disclosure is not limited to various embodiments given inthis specification.

Although examples have been described with reference to specificexemplary embodiments, it will be evident that various modifications andchanges can be made to these examples. Accordingly, the specificationand drawings are to be regarded in an illustrative sense rather than ina restrictive sense.

1. A computer-implemented method of enabling an organization to run afirst promotion integrated with viral features associated with one ormore social network-based platforms, comprising: receiving promotioninformation from the organization; generating one or more promotionapplications responsive to the promotion information for integrationwith the one or more social network-based platforms, wherein the one ormore promotion applications provide a way for a plurality ofparticipants to actively interact with the first promotion and advertisethe first promotion; receiving promotion entry data from the pluralityof participants; storing the promotion entry data; using the viralfeatures provided by the one or more social network-based platforms toincrease awareness of at least one of a first group consisting of thepromotion, the organization, a good or service associated with thepromotion or organization, a third party organization, and the thirdparty organization's good or service.
 2. The method of claim 1, furthercomprising verifying at least some of the promotion entry data.
 3. Themethod of claim 1 wherein the organization provides compensation to anadministrator of the promotion technology.
 4. The method of claim 1wherein at least some of the promotion entry data is used by theorganization or the third party organization to promote a good orservice unrelated to the promotion.
 5. The method of claim 1 wherein theviral features comprise friend invite features, newsfeeds, minifeeds,other features that display online activities of users and people in theusers' social network, notifications, requests, other socialnetwork-based platform features to deliver messages to members of theone or more social network-based platforms, and an indication of auser's selected applications on the user's social network profile page.6. The method of claim 1 wherein the promotion entry data includes oneor more of a second group consisting of name, email address, address,city, state, zip code, country of residence, birth date, gender, surveyresponses, and selected friends to be invited to join the firstpromotion.
 7. The method of claim 6 wherein survey responses includeelecting to join one or more groups associated with the one or moresocial network-based platforms and the organization or the third partyorganization.
 8. The method of claim 7 wherein the election to join oneor more groups takes effect automatically.
 9. The method of claim 1wherein the promotion information includes one or more of a third groupconsisting of rules of the first promotion, requirements for enteringthe first promotion, offered prizes, discounts, other incentives forentering the first promotion, promotion start and end dates and times,terms and conditions, a privacy policy, one or more social network-basedplatforms to integrate the first promotion with, and banners.
 10. Themethod of claim 9 wherein the banners may be any size for use inconjunction with the viral features.
 11. The method of claim 1 whereinthe first promotion permits participants to upload participant-generatedcontent, and the participant-generated content is integrated with theviral features.
 12. The method of claim 11 wherein theparticipant-generated content includes one or more selected from afourth group consisting of videos, photos, artwork, graphics, text, andaudio clips.
 13. The method of claim 1, further comprising providingsoftware for establishing an entry point to the first promotion, whereinthe entry point is external to the one or more social network-basedplatforms.
 14. The method of claim 13 wherein the entry point is on oneor more entry point webpages external to the one or more socialnetwork-based platforms.
 15. The method of claim 13 wherein the softwarecomprises software code that displays a widget or one or moreinteractive webpages for interacting with the first promotion.
 16. Themethod of claim 15 wherein the entry point is a banner or link to theone or more interactive webpages.
 17. The method of claim 15 wherein thewidget or the one or more interactive webpages integrates the firstpromotion with the viral features of the social network-based platformsand accesses data contained in a participant's social network-basedplatform profile.
 18. The method of claim 17 wherein the widget or theone or more interactive webpages does not require a participant tomigrate away from the widget or the one or more interactive webpages.19. The method of claim 1, further comprising accessing personal datacontained in a participant's social network-based platform profile topre-populate a promotion entry form or create other methods to simplifyinteractions with the first promotion.
 20. The method of claim 1,further comprising providing aggregate data on the plurality ofparticipants, wherein the aggregate data is derived from personal datafrom participants' social network-based platform profiles.
 21. Themethod of claim 1, further comprising providing aggregate data on theplurality of participants, wherein the aggregate data is derived frompersonal data from the promotion data.
 22. The method of claim 1,further comprising analyzing personal data from participants' socialnetwork-based profiles.
 23. The method of claim 1, further comprisinganalyzing personal data from the promotion entry data.
 24. The method ofclaim 1, further comprising using a participant's social networkbased-platform profile data to suggest other promotions related to theparticipant's profile data.
 25. The method of claim 1, furthercomprising using a participant's social network-based platform friendslist to provide the participant with information about the participant'ssocial network friends' interactions with the first promotion and otherpromotions.
 26. The method of claim 1, further comprising selecting oneor more winners for the first promotion.
 27. The method of claim 1,further comprising integrating participant voting mechanisms forselecting one or more winners for the first promotion with the viralfeatures.